Lok Sabha Election 2024: The Election Commission of India recently started the vote-from-home facility for those who cannot visit polling stations due to age or other reasons. The move has been adopted to make the election process more inclusive and accessible for Persons with Disabilities (PwD) and senior citizens aged 85 and above.
As per estimates, the initiative would allow more than 85 lakh senior citizens and 88.4 lakh persons with disabilities to cast their votes.
As on March 10, 2024, there are 81,87,999 senior citizen electors above 85 years and 2,18,442 electors above 100 years in the country, the election commission said.
The Union Law Ministry amended the Conduct of Elections Rules-1961 to change the definition of senior citizens who are eligible to choose the postal ballot facility from those “above 80 years" to those “above 85 years".
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, “Generally, the tendency has been that the senior citizens want to participate in the process and walk to the booth. But this time, we have given them options to vote in their homes."
According to the ECI, those citizens, who opt for home voting facilities, will not be eligible to cast their vote at the polling station.
How to register?
People who are willing to avail the facility will have to fill out Form 12D and inform the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) that they may not be able to visit the polling station to vote. The form can be downloaded from the official website of the Election Commission at www.eci.gov.in.
The Form 12D can also be collected from the office of the representative district officer of a Lok Sabha constituency. The forms have already been distributed in many states.
Once approved, polling officials along with a videographer and a security person will visit the eligible person's home to oversee the postal ballot voting process, a news agency reported.
The voter will get a prior notification about the date and time of the visit either through SMS or post.
The Lok Sabha elections are divided into seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. In total 17.24 crore voters are eligible to cast their vote in this phase at around 1.85 lakh polling stations. The vote counting will take place on June 4.